Under Different Circumstances
by Bearit
Summary: A series of Marius/Eponine drabbles, if Marius and Cosette had never crossed paths. A/U, obviously. For my friend Jemi.
1. A Different Morn

Eponine was not used to waking up in a bed that was not her own.

Not that it had not happened before. Those instances were usually slip-ups: she succumbed to sleep before her partner did. She never failed, luckily, to wake up before him so that she could sneak away with a priciest belonging he had. Considering the company she kept, the priciest belonging was barely enough for more than five sous and her parents scoffed at her attempt at petty theft. The only man she slept with she did not steal from was Montparnasse, but then he knew better than to fall asleep. In fact, he was the one who taught her the scheme.

And so when she woke up to the sunlight touching her eyes in a bed softer than the one she knew, she bolted upright. She had to get out of here. Now. Fast. Before the owner of the bed woke up. She had no time to loot his stuff. She had to find her clothes—

That was when Eponine looked down and saw that she was still wearing her clothes.

"'Ponine?" called a familiar, yet sleepy voice.

Eponine glanced behind her to see Marius tiredly rubbing his eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly.

Then Eponine recalled how Marius caught her running an errand for her father near his apartment just before the rainstorm hit, and how he had invited her inside to wait out the storm, and how she had teased him through his studies and dared to rest her head upon his shoulder…

She felt her face flush. "No, nothing. I just forgot where I was for a moment."

He reached out his arm towards her with a soft smile, inviting her to lay back down with him. So she did, cuddled against his chest and his arms wrapped around her gently.

Her father's letters could wait a little bit longer.


	2. A Quiet Study Night

Sometimes Eponine came to visit Marius. The excuses she told him and herself were not false: she needed to get away from her parents, the babies in the apartment downstairs were too noisy, she was on this side of town running errands anyway. But she was lying when she said that was her main reason for knocking on his door at after dusk.

He never complained, always letting her inside with a big, welcome smile. They often talked at lengths until Eponine felt like she was intruding too much on Marius's time and hospitality, excusing herself to return to the hell that was the small apartment she shared with her parents. But tonight, Marius only greeted her with a small, awkward smile and told her that he would not be able to entertain her tonight; he had an exam the next morning and he had to study for it.

She shrugged and told him that she didn't mind. Her father was meeting with some of his friends tonight, and Marius knew what that meant, so he let her inside anyway.

"I'm not sure what you could do…" said Marius sheepishly.

Eponine grinned. "I can read, you know." And she picked up one of his books and opened it up, sitting next to him and mulling over the text as Marius read his.

The words were difficult and beyond her comprehension. She knew what a lot of the individual words meant, but put them together and her mind spun. Her head started to hurt.

Eponine glanced up at Marius and smiled. He was lost in his book, his eyebrows knitted together as though the words made as little sense to him as it did to her. She then yawned, and felt her eyelids start to drop.

"Are you tired, 'Ponine?"

"Mm. No." And yet her eyes were closed anyway.

She heard Marius close his book and felt him take hers away, and he set them down on his bedside table. She thought that maybe he was going to have her go home, but instead she felt his arm wrap around her shoulder. He drew her into him, kissing her forehead gently.

Eponine smiled and let herself drift off to sleep.


	3. Wedding Preparations

Marius insisted that she did not have to do any of this, but Eponine disagreed. One of his high-esteemed student friends was getting married, and she had to look her best.

"If you don't want to, you don't have to. I promise they won't think any less of you. Remember what they—we—fought for?"

"All the more reason for me to do this, it is," said Eponine. "I want to look good. I want to look pretty."

"But you already do!"

Eponine smiled at her lover's poor attempt to reassure her. "You know what I mean, Monsieur Marius."

And so she scrubbed the dirt off every inch of her body until her skin was raw, she gave Marius' friend Courfeyrac all the money she earned to buy her a nice dress, and she stole a bourgeois woman's hairbrush and was certain she would pull all her hair out before she managed to untangle it.

Finally, on the day of the wedding, her skin was no longer brown from dirt or red from the rough cleaning, her hair was nice and straight, and she wore a dress that Marius was certain cost at least twice as much as Eponine gave Courfeyrac the money for. He mentally noted to pay Courfeyrac back the difference; charity was one of the things Eponine hated most.

"There," said Eponine as she examined herself in the mirror, a bright smile on her face that made her look more radiant than clean skin, perfect hair, and a beautiful dress ever could. "I look respectable enough for your friend's wedding, I do!"

She frowned as she leaned forward to examine her mouth closer. "If I had more money, I could have gotten fake teeth!"

"No one will notice."

"But they will!"

"No one will care."

"But I will!"

Then Marius wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss on the top of her head. "But I don't. You are beautiful, my 'Ponine, and you are the most beautiful when you smile. You should do it more often."

Eponine grinned and turned to kiss Marius fully on the mouth. "Then let us go, Monsieur Marius, to see your student friend get wed!"


End file.
